2010 Presidents Report

by: Anne Smith - 2010
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The executive of Unit 430 had a busy, productive year. Many new initiatives were presented. The Eddie Wold Seminar was well attended and most importantly the participants were pleased with the
presentation of the topics. David Dilkes made sure that everybody was made welcome and the taking care of business ran smoothly. Greg Morse put forward much effort in upgrading us in our communications by introducing us to our own blog and updating our material on the DINO website.
Vicki Moffat arranged for us to be involved at the Zoomer Show to promote bridge to beginners. There were many volunteers on a two day weekend to assist. Richmond Williams and Greg Morse devoted both days to this event. Greg Morse stepped up to the plate to handle the purchase of a dealer machine. Howard Rubin polished off a Dealer Machine Contract for our joint partners. Marguerite Chiarenza re-wrote our job descriptions for us. At our last general meeting there was a suggestion to have more events for non-life masters at sectionals. This has been done and there is an additional Future Stars Tournament offered in the fall. New players have been welcomed and supported by a mentor program individually and at a team game. And best of all, our tournaments are well attended. In fact, attendance is up.
In the meantime, members of the board were working hard to make sure all our events like the Ev Hodge Charity Night and the fundraisers were well organized. Jennifer Ballentyne who provides the hospitality for these events has done a very fine job. Rita Dodge did her bit by competently running the STAC week. Richmond Williams, Kathy Bye, John Demeulmeester and Greg Morse have arranged for our
tournaments to be well run. Vicki Moffat has done a fine job in keeping our books and Angela Fenton in keeping our minutes.
The last year has been immensely rewarding due to our great team. To all of you, thank you for your efforts. I have had a wonderful, fun year. Whenever I have needed assistance, you all have helped me
with your expertise. Not usually, do you ever find a group of people so talented.
Our directors deserve recognition. Matt Smith stepped in when Brian Russell was injured. Matt , we appreciate your style of directing which is quiet and very respectful of us all. Richard Dunn has stepped down from overseeing our Future Stars Tournament to be replaced by Bruce McIntyre. Kathy Miller has run our mentorship games and Bruce oversees our unit and imp league games. All of them work hard to make our games run smoothly. Thank you.
There are additional people who are working behind the scenes on important tasks. Bruce McIntyre and Ben Takemori produce the Matchpointer-on-Line and Matchpointer. June Popcock is our recorder and Patti Adams oversees our discipline committee. Monica Angus' advice has been invaluable. Ken Lochang has assisted this board in promoting newcomers. Peter Morse who represents us at CBF deserves a big thank you. Kudos also go to Cam Doner and David Schmidt for representing us at District 19. By the way, a District 19 representative position is open for nominations for a three year term at the end of December. If you are interested in serving please let a board member know.
One of the rewards of working with a board is getting to know some very fine people. Conversely, when they leave the board there is a loss. Jennifer, Angela, Marguerite, Monica and Rita your work done is much appreciated. You leave Unit 430 much better and behalf of the unit thank you.

A New Unit Board - June 2011

The Unit 430 AGM was held on May 22nd. Six new people were elected to replace those whose term of office had completed.
Welcome to:
Clay Connolly, Chris Maylin, Kai Zhou, John Tesche, and Lauren Weiler.
Returning members are:
Anne Smith (Past President), Greg Morse, John DeMeulemeester, Kathy Bye, David Dilkes, Howard Rubin, and Vicki Moffat, and Richmond Williams.
A big thank you to:
Monica Angus, Angela Fenton, Rita Dodge, and Marguerite Chiarenza.

A SUPER THANK YOU to Jennifer Ballantyne who is completing something like 20 years on the board.

Our first meeting is on June 2nd.

Want Hand Records For Your Club Game?

Calling all Unit 430 club owners.
If you are running a special game, and want hand records, (or for any other reason) you can now make arrangements to have pre-dealt boards, with hand records at your game.

Give Greg Morse, or Bruce McIntyre enough notice and we (I mean Bruce!) will generate a set of boards for you and provide you with 2 copies of the hand records.

You will have to arrange to pick up and return the boards, and to photocopy enough copies of the hand records however.

The cost for this service is set at $10.00 per set of boards.

Going Green

At the last sectional, our kitchen staff mentioned that they were astounded/dismayed/? by the number of styrofoam cups we used. Taking the matter to heart the board has decided to try to encourage players to bring their own coffee cups to sectionals.
Coffee will continue to be free, but the styrofoam cups will now cost $1.00. At the upcoming sectional the cups will still be free, but for the one after that the new policy will be in place.

Here's hoping the membership gets behind the spirit of this initiative.

Zoomer Show Results

Well I got the definition wrong. Apparently a 'Zoomer' is a Boomer with Zip.
The Zoomer show was held at the Vancouver Convention Center at Canada place.
Unit 430 had a nice big area, where we set up tables and introduced people to bridge.
The ACBL sent us a ton of promotional stuff, and the show itself gave us a couple of nice banners for our area. All in all it looked quite professional. Here is a photo of the banner.


Since there were several of us helping out there were always a few available to sit down with interested newcomers and walk them through a lesson hand or two.
Here is a photo of our area 'in action'.


As to what the long term effect will be who knows? But we could never have gotten the attention of so many people in such a short time if we were not there. We handed out several dozens of the ACBL "Learn to Play Bridge" CD's (in exchange for email addresses), conducted many mini lessons and games, handed out lots of flyers for the VBC and lessons and so forth.
Thanks to all the people who showed up to help and special kudos to Vicki who organized, promoted, and led the whole effort.

ZOOMER SHOW

Whats a Zoomer? I don't know. I think it is someone over 45 years old. The generation after the 'boomers'?
Anyway there is a show targetting Zoomers coming to the Vancouver Trade and convention center on Nov 27 and 28th.
Our Unit, (430 ACBL) has decided to participate and run a booth there for the two days.
We hope to introduce Duplicate Bridge to the target audience.

Here is a link to the web site that describes the show, and gives directions for getting there.

http://www.zoomershow.ca/2010/van/vancouver.html

If you have any ideas as to what sort of presentations should be at this show, what sort of lessons, etc. send an email to one of your board members.

We will be giving away some CD's with software on them, some old ACBL bridge bulletins, and the like.
Other suggestions welcome.

Some Handy Links

The local chapter of the ACBL (unit 430) maintains a web site with a lot of information on it.
Including the location and times of all the duplicate games at all of the clubs in the Vancouver area, and some in the Fraser Valley.

Check out Matchpointer Home Page
www.matchpointer.com/h0.htm

and also a list of clubs:
http://www.matchpointer.com/c1.htm

and a page of interesting bridge links here:
http://www.matchpointer.com/l0.htm

If you want to play online BridgeBase (BBO) is one very good place to start. They even have a special area for beginners, as well as chat rooms where you can practice your bidding.
See:
http://www.bridgebase.com/

Many of the local clubs post the results of the previous night's games online. The ACBL has a special page for such scores, so all you need to know is the name of your club.
Ask your director then go to the ACBL CLUB SCORES page and select from the drop down menus.
http://www.acbl.org/index.html
http://clubresults.acbl.org/